The established trade union leadership of the late nineteenth century has perhaps the least impressive reputation of its kind among British labour historians. Like most of their counterparts in other generations they have been condemned by Marxists for their commitment to gradual and constitutional change, or ‘reformism’, but they have had the additional misfortune of being seen as not particularly innovative even in this respect. This is in some contrast both to the trade union leaders of the mid nineteenth century, who have at least been presented as pioneers of a new form of industrial and political pragmatism, and to the parliamentary leaders of the early twentieth century, who have at least been credited with the construction of a distinctive brand of socialist political argument. For their part the leaders of the 1880s and 1890s have generally been seen not only as unoriginal followers of already established trade union practices but also as active opponents of the rise of socialism, and for historians writing between the 1940s and the 1970s it was difficult not to see this as obstructive and backward-looking whatever their own particular political viewpoints. The result has been that the Old Union leaders and their colleagues among the Lib.–Lab. MPs have come to be regarded largely as a collection of ageing Victorian has-beens whose only role in history was to vacate the stage in favour of the next generation.